


The Siren Song (and other tales of scoundrels)

by frenchforbird



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Boats, Canon Rewrite, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Multi, Pirate AU, Pirates, Reincarnation, Sailing, i dont know how boats work, w h y do i not know how to tag ever
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-02-11 07:26:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12930414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frenchforbird/pseuds/frenchforbird
Summary: The Hunger of the Sea is awake again. It's up to the crew of the Sea Blaster (and co.) to recover the Grand Relics of legend and put it back to sleep.Also, the twins pissed off The Pirate Queen.





	1. Chapter 1

The form was oozing past the gates. The water, which should have been blue and clear, was infected with a pulsing blackness. Light gleamed from above. It was brighter than any sunlight could be, tendrils streaming down and containing the darkened water. Its presence bulged against the iron bars, straining the chains of light that held it closed.

A feeling of wrongness held in the water.

As the view panned down, one could see a crack in the gleaming light that held the darkness in. It was small, small enough that very little could get through. But something was getting through, a small tendril of darkness that reached from beyond the gates. It slipped through the crack and let itself be carried away by the currents, drifting and drifting until it found itself a home on the underside of a ship. From the depths, something akin to a laugh was heard.

The Hunger Of The Sea had finally made contact with the open world.

Time was running out.

* * *

“Woman the cannons!” Lup ran past Magnus with a ferocity she didn’t usually have this early in the morning. He almost challenged her phrase (“I can’t woman anything, Lup!”) but his attention was drawn to a ship on the horizon. “Hurry, we haven’t all day!”

“Yes, ma’am!” He shouted after her, hurrying to his post. There was no guarantee that the ship they saw approaching was going to be hostile, but they’d seen some of The Pirate Queen’s men in the last port they had stopped at. Everyone was a little on edge. Everyone save for Davenport, that is.

He remained at the helm, unphased. He was always unphased when it came to surprise encounters like this, his mustache bristling in the sea breeze, his eyes watching Lup dashing across the deck with decided unamusement. At least Taako wasn’t awake yet, he thought. Two of the twins spreading panic wasn’t that good for his blood pressure. Davenport had been alive for a very, _very_ long time, and no one had ever stressed him out quite as much as those two did. Well, aside from Merle. Merle was in a different category altogether.

Merle, to his credit, was currently trying to talk Lup out of firing her gun into the air to try and scare the approaching ship off. He was the calmest when it came to encounters like this; he was the designated negotiator. They needed a negotiator surprisingly often. It was the twin’s fault unsurprisingly often. Lucretia kept track, in those journals of hers. 

Lucretia herself had, at some point in the commotion, surfaced from the captain’s office to investigate the shouting. She looked nervous, her long white hair blowing about her tense face in the wind. 

“Lu, you recognize their flags?” Lup had since given up her fight over the gun and was now halfway up the mast, her deft fingers holding onto notches in the wood. 

Lucretia squinted into the sun. She pursed her lips, then shook her head. Lup cursed, pulling herself up higher, her hair wild. Lucretia let herself laugh at the sight before joining Merle and looking over the side of the ship. 

“A good start to the morning, don’t you think?” He greeted her, a tenseness behind the friendly smile.

“A good start to anything,” she responded, careful to keep her voice level and strong. “Where’s Barry?”

“Good question, Lu!” Lup interrupted from her bird’s eye view, startling the two below her. Magnus was still struggling with the cannons, his fingers being too big to untangle the ropes that held them in place. Lucretia crossed the deck to aide him as Lup continued her shouting. “BAROLD! WAKE THE FUCK UP, MY LOVE!”

Magnus looked up at Lucretia as she kneeled next to him, a laughing gratefulness in his eyes. They worked at the knots together. There was a sense of urgency in the air, the strange ship growing ever so closer as each minute passed. Magnus was a kind soul, his ruffled facial hair never hiding that fact. He belonged on the sea. Even more than Lucretia, everyone thought, the way he never lost his sea legs and could always point them in the right direction and slept peacefully the whole night through. Lucretia, on the other hand, belonged under the water.

“Loops, what’s all this shouting about?” Taako had finally surfaced from the sleeping quarters, tugging his shirt over his head. Lup merely pointed. Taako squinted at the ship, his confused features slowly falling into a frown. He didn’t recognize it any more than his crewmates did. What he did recognize, however, was the fact that the ship was larger than theirs. He was ideal when it came to recognizing threat levels. Of course, he wasn’t as great as listening to his evaluations.“Mags, you got the cannons ready?”

“Almost!”

“Let me remind you all that we are not going to fire first!” Davenport’s voice cut in, and they all turned to him. He was frowning, keeping his course steady to his compass. “Should we fire first- which we will not be doing- we will lose. And I refuse to end our mission all because some of you _chucklefucks_ thought we had any chance against them.”

“Yes, cap’n,” came the reply from everyone. Silence fell for a few seconds. And then, quite noisily, Barry Bluejeans joined the crew on deck. 

“Did I miss something?” Barry was obviously still half asleep, his hair an atrocious mess. Lup swung herself down from the crow’s nest, straightening her own jacket before fixing the mess before her. Barry was a kind soul, a lover through and through, but he was a mess more often than not. He’d never gotten used to sleeping on a boat. The exact opposite of Magnus, actually, when it came to seafaring. Barry had been meant to be a land dweller for life. It was the twin’s fault that he wasn’t, but he found he didn’t entirely mind too much. 

The crew stood in silence, watching as the unrecognizable ship came closer and closer. The remained in silence as the ship passed, a few knots across the water. A small child waved, shouted something left to the wind. Magnus waved back, but the silence held. And as the ship disappeared over the water, Taako let loose a piece of thoughtful insight:

“I could have been _sleeping_.”

The silence broke, the crew complaining, Davenport scolding, Lucretia and Magnus kneeling to tie the cannons back down, Taako climbing into the crow’s nest to go back to sleep, Merle checking the maps and course correcting, Barry and Lup sneaking away for a snog. No one was entirely mad at the anxiety that had held them for so long. Besides the constant threat of The Pirate Queen, Merle’s dreams were getting worse. He still refused to call them nightmares, though.

When Davenport had recruited this mess of a crew to search the ocean for the Grand Relics of legend, he hadn’t expected things to get so hairy. They were supposed to find the relics and secure The Hunger of the Sea before any damage could be done. It had been three years, now. All they had found was the Fire Gauntlet. It had destroyed an entire island before they could get to it, nearly killing Barry as well, but it was now safely locked in a shitty chest under Lup’s bed.

Taako sometimes used it to roast marshmallows.

* * *

They pulled into port around midday, Barry leaping onto the shore the second he was able to without needed to actually swim. Davenport ordered everyone else to stay onboard. They all listened, watching as Barry vomited over the edge of the docks as he was overcome with disorientation.

“Good afternoon, sirs!” A small voice called out to them as Davenport navigated the boat to their reserved mooring. “Mister Avi’s been teaching me how to tie boats down. When we saw you coming, he said I could help you!”

“Excellent, little man,” Lup responded, tossing him the ropes. Everyone else watched nervously- they loved Angus McDonald, they really did, but trusting an eleven year old boy with something this important-

“Done it!”

Lup let out a cheer, swinging herself off of the ship without waiting for the gangplank to be lowered. She didn’t even glance at Angus’s handiwork, ruffling his hair before going to search for Barry. The rest of crew followed, inspected the knotting before congratulating Angus. Taako called him Agnus, of course, and Magnus thought he was being called, as always. Lucretia was the last to leave the ship, charming it with her protection spell. She had the heart of the sea behind her charm, and always knew they would return to find the Sea Blaster in perfect condition.

The Bay of Balance was the closest thing to a home that their crew had. Davenport had grown up there, his home overlooking the bay itself. He’d been a sailor since he was strong enough to row, and never spent much time there, but he knew the people of the village like he knew the back of his hands. After the mission started, the crew would spend their off time here, dicking around in the tavern or exploring the forests on the east side. Davenport’s family home was legitimately a mansion, and they all had their own rooms- rooms that were rarely used, of course, but rooms nonetheless. The crew would spend a few weeks there in the winter, and a few sporadic days during the sailing season after a particularly harrowing event. Mostly, they would visit every few weeks, resupplying and setting sail before the sun had even set. And of course, getting intel from Angus. For an eleven year old, he was pretty decent as locating Grand Relics. If only the crew was as good at securing them.

Merle shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked down the streets with his shipmates. It was good to be home, if only for a day. He’d have letters waiting for him from Mavis and Mookie, if he was lucky. But a pit of anxiety remained in his stomach.

He hadn’t yet told the others of his dream from the previous night. He could no longer relish in the periods of rest that they used to cherish so. Time was running out, officially. They’d begun to guess, what with the urgency of which Merle described his dreams, the dread that he felt when he saw those weakened gates. But the night before was the first time that he had seen something escape. The Hunger of the Sea was out there, now. 

The end of the world was coming.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> who's ready for some back stories???

When Lup and Taako stowed away on one of the Pirate Queen’s ships, the captain had agreed to keep them on under the condition that they were on best behavior and entirely loyal to the Pirate Queen. They had nowhere else to go, and agreed. As they climbed the ranks of the small fleet, making a name for themselves among the other pirates, they became disillusioned with their backseat roll to her reign. They’d never even met her. And so, drunk out of their minds, they pulled off the biggest heist of their lives. Taako and Lup stole a small ship and fled.

It had been a terrible idea.

The Pirate Queen was known for the strong command she held over her pirates. Letting these two orphan nobodies get away without a second of punishment would be bad for her carefully crafted image. Unfortunately, they had been trained well in matters of espionage and evasion. They proved a little more than difficult to apprehend. The ship itself ended up wrecked during a chase, but they still managed to escape. They always managed to escape.

* * *

Barry Bluejeans had one goal in life since he was seven years old: own an ice cream cart on the docks. After he graduated from university (top of his class), he did just that, using self-invented spells to make and chill his ice cream. He’d met many people this way, chatting with sailors who passed by, children who were flying kites, widows who hoped their husbands would be returning soon. He never disappointed a customer. And so, when a stunning woman named Lup bought an ice cream cone while desperately asking for a place to hide, he jumped at the opportunity to help.

The next morning, Barry’s name was added to the Pirate Queen’s bounties.

The twins, feeling a more than a little sympathy for the kind man that they had dragged into their mess, decided to continue dragging him along. He couldn’t stay in Neverwinter, of course. Why wouldn’t he want to go sailing on boats that they definitely stole? It was certainly more exciting that selling ice cream. It was either the best or worst decision of his life.

* * *

Magnus Burnsides was one of the kindest people that one could meet. Him and his wife lived on the beach, in a small cottage that he had built himself, on the edge of a small coastal town where they had lived their entire lives. He would leave early morning and return by midday which enough fish to feed him and Julia for two weeks. He’d sell them in the market square, greeted by people who knew and cherished him. He’d led the uprising, five years prior, that turned their town from a pirate’s smuggling base and into a welcoming place. He was an honest man, a man who never got mixed up in any piratical things, who would proclaim his detestation of them after a few drinks.

He was content to live and die this life.

The day came when Petrel’s Peak appeared on the horizon as fire and ashes. There was nothing Magnus could salvage, no matter how hard he tried, his hands burned and scarred as he dug through the rubble. His simple cottage was nothing more than a black stain on the pristine white sands. Anything that had survived the fire had already been scavenged; at the center of the market square stood a single flash, the bright green colors of The Governor stark against the blackened landscape. The Governor had been the most prominent pirate forced from Petrel’s Peak during the uprising. The title was a family name, passed down through the generations. Taking the flag and vowing revenge, Magnus left Petrel’s Peak as it still smoked on the horizon.

* * *

The day that Merle Highchurch walked out on his wife was the day that he changed his wife forever. Up until that point, he had been timid. He had been unsure of his faith. Unsure of his path in life. Making the decision to leave gave him courage that he harnessed and never let go. He stayed in an inn for the next couple days, writing letters of explanation for his kids, for his wife. He sent them, then continued on, discovering himself as an adventurer, rediscovering his faith in Pan.

It was his rebirth.

He kept in touch with Mavis and Mookie, of course, sending letters from each new place he visited. Sometimes, if he managed the money, he’d send them gifts, too. He migrated from port to port, hitching rides from sympathetic sailors. If he couldn’t find a ship, he would seek out a caravan, or rent a horse, or walk. When Captain Davenport offered him a ride to a new port, a new island, he agreed and climbed aboard.

* * *

Davenport had a habit of picking up strays. In nearly every port, he would notice some poor lost soul and offer them a ride to wherever they wanted. Sometimes, if they just wanted to leave, he would invite them to return to his home town with him: The Bay of Balance, on the island of Crescent, so small that it wasn’t on any maps. People found it comforting there. It was a hodgepodge of people who held no judgement towards each other, who lived in complete harmony. 

It was a home.

Davenport, however, was an adventurer. The moment he could, he bought a ship and began sailing. He’d take odd jobs to earn money, and made sure to stay on the good side of any pirates. He thought of himself as an honorable man, even if he would sometimes smuggle rum to islands under royal control or lead fleets of pirate ships through difficult waters. He was an _adventurer_ , and nothing could keep him from that.

* * *

One of the few regrets Davenport had in life was Lucretia. He had come across her just seconds too late to do anything to save her. Lucretia was a deadly siren, sharp teeth under her kind smile. Worst of all, she was curious. She had strayed far from her pod, and was tricked. Two sailors, whom she thought were kind and trustworthy, had tricked her into coming up to their ship. The moment her hands touched the cursed wood, they stole her tail from her like one would steal the pelt of a selkie. 

The pain pulled her into unconsciousness, and she dropped beneath the water.

A kind man with a mustache the shade of the sunrise pulled her from the treacherous waters she could no longer navigate. He had been watching from his slowly approaching ship, but he hadn’t been close enough to do anything. He heard the magic as it was cast, it strong enough that the air snapped, then watched her head dip below the water. Lucretia loved the water, and couldn’t bear to stray from it. Davenport kept her aboard the Sea Blaster, teaching her how to walk, then how to sail. She began keeping records of their travels, making the Sea Blaster more organized than it had ever been. She was grateful for this second chance. She was safe, now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you guys enjoyed!! i wanted to establish everyone's backstories- the next chapter will also be a bit of a flashback, and it details everyone getting together for the search for the relics. im having a lot of fun with this au!!!
> 
> thank you for reading! feedback is always appreciated <3


	3. Chapter 3

The first night that Merle dreamt of the Hunger of the Sea, he paid no attention to it. The second night, he said a quick prayer to Pan before returning to sleep. The third night, he considered changing his diet. By the seventh night, he was equally concerned and sleep deprived. He spent the entire day searching the meager collection of books on board. He’d grown up on legends about The Hunger of the Sea, of course, but he and everyone else assumed they were simply legends.

Around midday, Lucretia came into his room and looked over his books, a look of confusion passing over her young face. It always took Merle off guard, how young and terrible this woman could be.

“These books are all terribly inaccurate,” she declared. “Why didn’t you come to me, if you were curious?”

“Well, I didn’t know that was an option. Besides, assuming the _mermaid_ would know-”

“I’m not a mermaid, Merle.”

“-would, frankly, be offensive, wouldn’t it?”

Lucretia sighed, tying her hair up and sitting on top of the table that Merle had claimed for his research. “My mother is an expert scholar on the Hunger. She’s one of the most respected voices on the matter.”

“A scholar?” He tapped his fingers on the cover of the book he was reading, doubtful. “Isn’t the Hunger just a legend? How can she be a scholar on something that doesn’t exist?”

“It does exist!” Lucretia shouted with emphatic hands, her pointed teeth showing for a bare second. She sighed, smoothing her hands over the fabric in her lap. “It _does_ exist, Merle. Scholars like my mother have been tracking its effects on the ocean for years, now. Unnaturally cold currents, mutated fish, they took notice of it. The Hunger is the only reasonable explanation.”

“Fine,” Merle gave in. “Then tell me about it.”

Lucretia was all too happy to indulge Merle’s question. The Hunger was seen as a real threat to the sirens, not a legend, and there were rumors that its power was growing stronger. The Grand Relics had never been recovered; the legend went that the sea reclaimed them after the unknown heroes had locked the Hunger away. If the Hunger broke free, the results would be devastating. 

After nearly half an hour of this back and forth, Merle burst onto the top decks and began yelling at Davenport about how they needed to start a mission immediately. Recruit missionaries, buy maps, the whole nine yards. Merele would be damned before letting go of this self-imposed duty. Davenport couldn’t exactly refuse, not with Lucretia’s eager face and the threat of an all-consuming beast running rampant. He put out some posters when they docked at Pearlcliff, calling for fighters and sailors and explorers. They received a decent amount of responses: Davenport was expecting zero, and they got three. 

The first was a young boy who claimed to be a detective. Davenport turned him down for the mission immediately, not even letting him set foot on the Sea Blaster. He wasn’t going to be responsible for the life of an eight year old boy, no matter how smart he might be.

The second was a man covered in scars who professed his carpentry skills. Lucretia could tell he had recently lost someone important to him. She whispered this into Davenport’s ear, as well as how he would be reckless but valuable.

The third came in the middle of the night. Magnus, the carpenter, had been patching up rotten boards, while everyone else played cards under his lantern. Merle was trying to play two hands at once, claiming he was playing in Magnus’s name. All he was doing was losing more money. Lucretia was destroying them all. It was peaceful and quiet. And then, a red robed figure was tossed onto the deck. An awkward, terse staring contest ensued. It was only broken when two identical elves, dressed in similar red garb, pulled themselves over the railing.

“Hail and well met?” Magnus ventured, reaching for his hammer.

“Hang on, don’t-- you don’t need the hammer, bubeleh, we didn’t think anyone was aboard, just looking for a place to,”

“To dip out, y’know?” The other elf finished the phrase, just as shouts broke out from further down the dock. These three were obviously involved in some trouble. Davenport estimated they had less than a minute before trouble came to him, too.

“We can help you,” Lucretia was quick to say, seeming a little flustered. “Right, Davenport?”

Davenport wanted to refuse. He didn’t want to get himself involved in any more trouble than he usually did, especially not after committing himself to the daunting task of finding the Grand Relics. But, Lucretia was looking at him with those puppy dog eyes that, even after two years, he couldn’t say no to.

“Fine,” he grumbled, “get in the hold.”

The three strangers quickly descended, Lucretia close behind. She seemed fascinated by them, understandably so. The twins were gaudy, the man was mysterious, and all were total strangers. Magnus followed her down. He was holding his hammer lazily by his side, but Davenport could tell he was already protective of wide-eyed Lucretia. It was hard not to be; her sense of curiosity had already gotten her into trouble once.

By the morning, the three strangers had introduced themselves as Lup, Barry, and Taako. Davenport could tell that the twins were some sort of sea scoundrels, but Barry had a kind heart. He seemed to be able to keep the other two in line. Eventually, the topic of their mission came up. Lucretia became taken with the idea of the three coming along. Davenport was hard pressed to refuse, even ignoring the desperate face of Merle. And so, the crew became seven. As Davenport prepared to set sail, a small voice sounded from the docks.

“Excuse me, sirs? And-- And Lucretia?” It was the eight year old from before, standing with a small briefcase and holding a notebook tightly to his chest. “I know you said no yesterday, but I really think I can help find whatever you’re looking for. I’m the world’s greatest detective!”

Taako found this hilarious and immediately laughing, his sister hitting on the arm to get him to shut up. Merle was beginning to usher the boy away. But Lucretia was thinking. Magnus decided right then that he would strive to never get on Lucretia’s bad side, because her thinking face was terrifying enough.

“Davenport?”

Davenport sighed. “Yes, Lucretia?”

“What if we take-- Angus, that’s your name, right?-- what if we take Angus back to the Bay? He could help us from there, you have that library, and we can bring him things. That way we don’t have to worry about his safety. He could help us from there.”

The Sea Blaster left the port with eight people aboard, heading straight for the Bay of Balance. A week later, Angus would send them off to investigate their first lead. A month after that, the Pirate Queen would attack, revealing the truth behind the three crewmates. Three months later, they would end up shipwrecked on a desert island. Two days later, Lucretia have enough energy to bless their ship with the magic of the heart of the sea. By the end of the first year, they would claim their first relic, and become thick as thieves. They’d also become thieves-- there were a lot of people out there who refused to believe the Hunger of the Sea was a threat, and even more who wanted the Hunger free. Barry put together uniforms for them, red jackets and cloaks that matched the clothing that him and the twins had been wearing on that first night. In a year, they became a family.

They needed to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the last flashback chapter!! (actually, that's a lie, we will eventually get some flashbacks to their search for the fire gauntlet, but not for awhile)
> 
> i sincerely apologize for the delay in updating, i have had a lot going on and was hyperfocused on my other two fics. i have the next chapter started, and hopefully that will be up sooner than later.
> 
> thank you for reading! i hope you enjoyed, and feedback is always appreciated!

**Author's Note:**

> hmm so this was bouncing around in my head a l l d a y so i just had to write it, y'know? i'm not sure if i'll continue this one, it was mostly so i wouldn't burn out writing breathing contrast. i definitely have some more ideas for this! a whole backstory and everything! so let me know if you want to see more.
> 
> thank you for reading! i hope you enjoyed, and feedback is always appreciated!!


End file.
